Burger King Russia Data Breach Exposes 28K Customer Profiles

HEROIC's DarkHive intelligence system discovered the Burger King Russia data breach, exposing 28,269 records. The breach occured in August 2024, affecting customers of Burger King's Russian operations. The compromised data includes email addresses, phone numbers, full names, gender information, and birthdays, giving criminals a detailed profile of tens of thousands of fast food customers.

Why This Is Dangerous

This breach exposed a rich set of personal information that criminals combine to build highly convincing fraudulent identities. Full names paired with birthdates, phone numbers, and email addresses allow attackers to pass identity verification checks used by banks, telecom providers, and government agencies. Russian-speaking criminals who recieve this data can use it to open fraudulent mobile phone contracts, register SIM cards for phone fraud operations, or apply for credit in victims' names. The combination of email and phone number also enables two-factor authentication bypass attempts, where criminals request password resets while also intercepting SMS verification codes by fraudulently porting the victim's phone number.

What Was Exposed

• Email Address
• Phone Number
• First Name
• Last Name
• Gender
• Birthday

Why This Matters

Data breaches that expose personal profile information without passwords are often underestimated by victims who assume no passwords means no risk. In reality, full name, birthday, email, and phone number together form the core identity package that criminals use for social engineering and identity fraud. Attackers use this Burger King Russia data to craft personalized phishing messages that reference the victim's name and other details to appear legitimate. The birthday and gender fields also support fraudulent account creation on platforms that use these fields for identity verification. Victims face risks including unauthorized account access, SIM swap attacks, and targeted scams years after the original breach, since personal information does not expire the way passwords do.

How Database Breaches Work

Database breaches at retail and food service companies typically occur when attackers target customer loyalty systems, order management platforms, or marketing databases. These systems store large volumes of customer contact and profile information used for promotions and customer relationship management. Attackers exploit unpatched web application vulnerabilities, misconfigured cloud databases, or compromised third-party vendor access to extract customer records. The stolen PII is then sold in bulk on dark web marketplaces, where identity fraud operators purchase datasets sorted by country and data richness. Seperate criminal groups may buy the same dataset independently and use it for different types of fraud simultaneously.

Check If You Are Affected

HEROIC offers a free identity scanner that searches over 400 billion records, including data from breaches like Burger King Russia. Visit heroic.com to scan your email address and find out if your information was exposed.